


Problems in Bibliographic Control

by Northland



Category: Old Kingdom - Garth Nix
Genre: Books, Clayr, Gen, Librarians, Libraries, Magical Artifacts, dangers of improper cataloguing
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-04-07
Updated: 2017-04-07
Packaged: 2018-10-13 07:38:02
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,188
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10509279
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Northland/pseuds/Northland
Summary: The cataloguing backlog was up to twenty-three years now, which meant that the volumes Seren saw were just boring and dusty. Anything truly dangerous had been sniffed out by an earlier Librarian.





	

**Author's Note:**

  * For [shopfront](https://archiveofourown.org/users/shopfront/gifts).



> Dear shopfront, thank you for the chance to explore the Library of the Clayr a little further. I hope you enjoy it!

Seren was bored.

She had hoped that graduation to the blue waistcoat of a First Assistant Librarian would mean new and interesting duties—leading cataloguing parties into the spirals of the Old Levels or travelling away from the Clayr’s Glacier on book-hunting expeditions—especially since there were fewer than five First Assistants at any time.

Instead, as usual, Chief Librarian Vancelle assigned all of the exciting tasks to more senior Librarians. All that Seren was apparently considered reliable enough for was indexing some of the more obscure and potentially unsafe works still in the Unknown Acquisitions Room, even though the great-great-great-grandmother she was named after had been one of the youngest Chief Librarians ever to serve.

But the backlog was up to twenty-three years now, which meant that the volumes Seren saw were just dusty and boring. Anything truly dangerous had either been sniffed out by an earlier Librarian, or sensed by the Library’s protective Charter spells, or simply caused enough trouble (like the necromancer’s journal which had started a fire) that it would have been noticed already.

On the other hand, today Seren had only two books to process, which meant that if she worked quickly enough, she’d be able to join one of the hunting parties of Rangers that went out in the early afternoon. She was a skilled enough archer that she was always welcome to do so. And if Kielle should happen to be one of the party as well, and Seren were able to impress her by making a good shot… she crossed her fingers for luck.

She prepared her desk hastily, laying circles of bone dust and silver and drawing Charter Marks of protection even though they wouldn’t be necessary. Deputy Librarian Ness had been known to demote Librarians who skimped on proper bibliographic procedure.

Seren laid the first book down in the centre of the protective circle and flipped it open. It was a boring account of a land called Ancelstierre where supposedly the Charter did not flow and no magic existed. Frankly, she doubted that there was any such place; it sounded like a myth to her. But in any case, she examined the book methodically, worked quickly through the description and indexing, and set it aside for the Librarian who specialized in traveller’s tales.

The next book was a thick volume bound in slick cream-coloured leather that was unpleasantly greasy to the touch. It had a spelled lock, which her key bracelet unclasped easily, but when she opened it all the pages were blank. Seren tried several of the tricks she knew to reveal a book’s secrets. She closed her eyes and opened it at a random page, and then turned to the last page first. She drew the mark of Hiyle over it, which showed hidden things, but nothing became visible on the pages.

Seren sighed. Many books only displayed their contents at certain times or for a certain kind of person. Maybe this one could only be read by a woman who’d borne a child, or maybe its text would only be visible by the light of a full moon. Whatever the secret of this one might be, discovering it was going to take more time and effort and almost certainly ruin her chances of going hunting today.

She flipped back through the frustratingly blank pages again. Wait: now it had something in it. Words were swimming up, bleeding onto the paper as she watched, and colours too—there were illustrations. One caught her eye because it looked a little like her. She squinted and bent her head closer to the page. Actually, it looked exactly like her, but somehow not the reflection she’d seen in the mirror that morning. This image of her stood taller, and drew the eye with her charisma. And she wore the white waistcoat of the Deputy Librarian.

Seren gasped, her fingers going to her mouth, and looked at the text opposite the portrait. It told of a heroic Librarian who discovered a powerful artifact by chance while working in the Library. She skimmed the words faster, eager to see what happened next. This Seren became a great mage, Seer, and Librarian. As she grew wiser and more powerful, she served as the Voice of the Nine Day Watch many times and earned the admiration of all her fellow Clayr—one Ranger in particular. (Seren blushed, but did not put the book down.) And then, she defeated a Free Magic creature that rose from the depths of the oldest spiral of the Library, saving the life of Vancelle, who retired and gratefully passed her position onto her worthy successor.

Seren was so absorbed in the book that she did not see the light in her study fading and the shadows thickening. She didn’t feel the little clockwork mouse in her waistcoat tremble and shiver, desperately wishing to do its job and alert the other Librarians of danger but unable to move. She didn’t see the way her hands had begun to meld with the cover of the book until her fingers were nearly undistinguishable ripples in the binding.

As the book began to absorb more and more of Seren, her arms disappeared into it up to the wrist. She kept reading, engrossed in the tale of Seren the Wise and her enthralling life.

Seren became a valued counselor to the Queen and King, who often visited the Glacier to consult her clarity of vision and wisdom. Once she was their guest at the Royal Palace in Belisaere. And then (even more exciting), while hunting, she saved Kielle from the attack of a ravening icebear on the glacier! Kielle smiled at her and took her hand, about to reward her with a kiss…

Seren yelped as something bit her—right on the leg! Another icebear? She looked down, but all she saw was a nondescript black and tan mongrel with pointed ears and a plumed tail.

“Bleah.” The dog opened its mouth and let its tongue loll out. “You humans don’t taste nearly as good as you think you do.”

Seren blinked and stared at it uncertainly. She’d read about talking animals in other stories, it was true, but they weren’t so vulgar.

“Seren?” A pleading voice called. Seren looked back at the book and it was no longer merely an illustration: Kielle’s lovely, familiar face and form were before her. But she wavered and shimmered, as though she were just on the verge of fading away or transforming into something else. “Seren, my love, return to me!”

“What a load of claptrap,” the dog said, whuffling in its throat with a noise almost like a laugh.

“Don’t be rude, Dog,” another voice said. “I think it’s kind of sweet.”

And then Kielle disappeared altogether, as did the beautiful shining light of sun on the glacier and the icebear’s huge bloodied mound of fur, and Seren was back in her cramped, dingy workroom. The book she had been inspecting was open and glowing with a sickly bruise-coloured light. Seren tried to drop it on her desk, but her hands were stuck to the cover. No, they were being eaten by the book! She screamed, or tried to scream, but her breath came short and gasping.

From behind her, the second voice spoke a Charter spell, a powerful one visible as a luminous streak through the air as it arrowed toward the book and struck it with a silent, explosive spark of light. The book tore free of Seren’s hands, and then she did scream at the pain.

A Librarian pushed past Seren and touched her bracelet to the book, locking it again with the emerald spells bound into the jewellery. She spoke another Mark of Warding and the silver lock flashed bright, binding the volume securely closed once more.

Seren was stunned. She stared at her hands, turning them over, expecting them to be bloody and torn, but they were whole. She looked up at the other Librarian, a younger woman who was retracing the smudged circle of bone dust. She was vaguely familiar, but Seren couldn’t recall her name... oh, Lirael, that was it.

What was Lirael, out of all the Clayr, doing here? She had only just been marked for promotion to Second Assistant, though she didn’t yet have the red waistcoat. She was also one of the mousiest, least obtrusive people Seren had ever met. In fact, she seemed to try as hard as possible to be invisible—skulking through the halls of the Library, rarely speaking even when spoken to.

“What? I mean, how...?” Half of Seren’s mind was still caught up in the fascinating life of Seren the Wise, and she trailed off before she could finish forming a question. She shook her head and pinched herself on the arm. “How did you know that book was dangerous?”

“I was passing by in the hall.” Lirael’s voice was so quiet Seren could barely hear her. “It sounded like you were in trouble, so I opened the door.” She didn’t meet Seren’s eyes, but smiled nervously at the floor.

And then what had happened? Seren’s memory was already fading, like the ink on the predatory book. She knew that Lirael was good at Charter Magic, but surely the girl couldn’t just have defeated a Level Four incursion? Unless Seren completely missed her guess—and she had always been skilled at identification—that was no book, but a Free Magic creature which had taken on the shape of one as a means of luring its prey. What would have happened if Lirael hadn’t come along at just the right moment? Would Seren have been lost forever, consumed? And how many other Librarians would have been eaten? She shuddered.

“Thank you, First Assistant Librarian,” she said formally, retreating into politeness to hide her fear.

Lirael shrugged, her long black hair sliding in front of her face. She was pretty (really, very pretty) but you’d never know it from the timid way she stood with her head down and shoulders slouched. It was as though she expected to be scolded at any moment and was already trying to evade punishment. “I didn’t do anything, really,” she whispered.

Seren frowned. That was hardly true. And something else was missing… She glanced around the room and checked under her desk. “Wasn’t there a dog here a minute ago?”

“A dog?” Lirael echoed, sounding panicky. She was probably scared of them, the poor thing. “I don’t see how a dog could be in the Library.”

Seren shrugged and decided that the disappearing dog must have been part of the Free Magic of the book. Perhaps that was how the book had planned to eat her! She grimaced. Either way, it was immaterial now.

“Come along,” Seren said grimly. “We must report to the Chief.” She was not anxious to confess her carelessness and be scolded for it, but like any Librarian of the Clayr, she knew her duty.

Lirael twisted her hands together in front of her. “Must we?”

“Yes. For one thing, this book is going to require heavier chains than I have on hand, and more powerful Marks of Binding than I can cast.”

“I suppose so,” Lirael sighed. “But do I have to come along?”

“Yes,” Seren repeated firmly. She was not about to face Vancelle alone when she could bring along another Librarian to diffuse the blame. She took Lirael’s arm and towed her firmly away, but not without pausing to lock her study door securely behind them first.

*

“Clearly there’s more to the story than Lirael or Seren is telling us.” Vancelle sipped her wine and stretched her feet closer to the fire. In the great glass wall of her study, the reflected light looked like a beacon fire set on the vast white fields of the Clayr’s Glacier.

Ness harrumphed in agreement. “What I don’t understand is how Lirael could defeat a creature wily enough to disguise itself as a book in a library and strong enough to trap a First Assistant Librarian. Seren may be vain, but she’s not stupid. If she couldn’t escape, how did Lirael manage it?”

“Perhaps Lirael was too powerful to be easily entrapped.”

“Powerful?” Ness raised an eyebrow. “That gawky child? Her Sight hasn’t even woken yet.”

“She is one of the strongest Charter Mages among us,” Vancelle said repressively. “And the fact that she does not have her Sight means little, if we consider that she is also Unseen. None of us knows who her father was. Why has no-one ever Seen Arielle’s lover, whoever he may have been? What other gifts may Lirael have inherited from him?”

“Hmm.” Ness sipped her wine. “A good point.”

Vancelle looked over at her Charter-spelled sword, Binder, in its stand. She still wondered if there was a story behind the morning she found that its protective wards had been disturbed, yet no alarm had been raised by the sword. “I doubt that Lirael will remain obscure forever. I think we will know more of her in time, and I think she may surprise us all.”

**Author's Note:**

> Many thanks to egelantier for her thoughtful and lightning-fast beta reading.
> 
> If the seductive story-telling book seems familiar, that's because it was inspired by the Magician's Book in C.S. Lewis' _Voyage of the Dawn Treader_ which tempted Lucy (although that one was less carnivorous). Some other background details were taken from the [Old Kingdom website](http://oldkingdom.com.au/).


End file.
